Agua

by Eduardo Berti

A fable about the clash of progress and tradition which employs a nice use of symbolism; the coming of electricity threatens the "light" provided by the church. Reads very easily though you have to be careful not to miss the story's many shifts and turns. Nothing is as it seems starting with the book itself, a tale in Spanish set in Portugal.

Extract

The first day Broyz could think of nothing else but the story. True or false, it seemed in fact an immodest act, an indiscretion, that the aviator should divulge to a haphazard audience the supposed attraction that Fermanda had felt towards him. Yet what if it was true? Or worse stil, what if Fermanda and Acevedo really had been lovers? He seccumbed to the idea for a moment. Fermanda and the aviator? His Fermanda? He imagined them together and burst out laughing.